CLEVELAND, OH - Cleveland Public Library (http://emedia.clevnet.org) today became the first public library to offer eBook downloads in the industry standard EPUB format. Readers at both Cleveland Public Library and CLEVNET member libraries can check out and download EPUB eBooks from the library's download website.

The EPUB files are optimized for the Sony® Reader and can also be read on a PC or Mac® with free Adobe® Digital Editions software.

Ooh I'm jealous. I doubt my local library (which is in rural New Hampshire and is about the size of my living room) will be offering ebook downloads anytime soon... On the other hand, they do offer downloadable audiobooks, so maybe ebooks are the next step.

Ooh I'm jealous. I doubt my local library (which is in rural New Hampshire and is about the size of my living room) will be offering ebook downloads anytime soon... On the other hand, they do offer downloadable audiobooks, so maybe ebooks are the next step.

If you want you can, as several here have, join the New York public library system. As a non-resident it cost $100 a year, but that is much cheaper than buying 5-10 books a month if you are a heavy reader.

I hope that the compensation going back to the authors and publishers is updated to reflect this new reality. With this model going out to the 8500+ Overdrive supplied libraries it's going to be easier to borrow a well formatted electronic book then to buy it.

I'm fine with it if the compensation going back to the authors and publishers is the same when the book is borrowed as when it was purchased. The difference being that the tax payer is picking up the tab. As long as the tax payers are willing to fund it everything is fine. My understanding right now is that the compensation going back is more of a symbolic pittance.

Most of the members of my family will be thrilled with this news though. I'm the black sheep that continues to buy books.

If you want you can, as several here have, join the New York public library system. As a non-resident it cost $100 a year, but that is much cheaper than buying 5-10 books a month if you are a heavy reader.

BOb

Thanks for the tip

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barcey

I hope that the compensation going back to the authors and publishers is updated to reflect this new reality. With this model going out to the 8500+ Overdrive supplied libraries it's going to be easier to borrow a well formatted electronic book then to buy it.

I'm fine with it if the compensation going back to the authors and publishers is the same when the book is borrowed as when it was purchased. The difference being that the tax payer is picking up the tab. As long as the tax payers are willing to fund it everything is fine. My understanding right now is that the compensation going back is more of a symbolic pittance.

Most of the members of my family will be thrilled with this news though. I'm the black sheep that continues to buy books.

Is borrowing an ebook from the library different from borrowing a print book from the library?

Is borrowing an ebook from the library different from borrowing a print book from the library?

So far as I can tell, if a library buys N copies of an ebook then N patrons can checkout the ebook at any one time. The checkout time is a fixed period of time with the ebook expiring at the end of the checkout period. However, with Adobe (but not MOBI) there is an early return capability. OverDrive allows for "consortia", which I take to mean groups of libraries that are pooling resources, but overall this seems to be patterned on how physical books are handled by libraries.

Its really difficult reading this thread being a Kindle owner who lives in the Cleveland area

I knew going into it that it supported only the Kindle proprietary eBook format, so I can't complain or gripe.

Hopefully they'll re-think things and add the e-Pub format, but I highly doubt it. Why would they, they want Kindle owners to buy all their eBooks from them!

I may have to start combing these forums and choose another eReader; I can always sell the Kindle.

Kindle owners have never had to buy all their books from Amazon. I believe fictionwise and other stores sell mobi format books. Check our wiki.

And the clevnet has almost a thousand mobipocket books which you can check out, download to your computer, and read on your kindle if you install kindlefix. This doesn't strip DRM, and the book will still be unreadable after the checkout period.

If I were you, I'd be the first in line tomorrow if I didn't already have a library card.......